Creating artwork is one of those things that some adults find easy and others won’t even try to do! Young children, however, don’t judge themselves as harshly as grown-ups, and usually are eager to dive head first into painting, drawing, cutting, and gluing. The process of working with different media and putting colors and materials together is rich with learning experiences and even more important than what the creation looks like in the end. The drawing, painting, or collage they bring home from school is a reminder to your children of how much fun it was to make their art piece.

As children get older they create art with more intention. Children learn to use the real world and their imaginations for inspiration. Because artwork is unique to each person, children can find self-confidence in creating one-of-a-kind pieces with support and encouragement from the adults in their lives.

To encourage your child’s creativity, read some of these children’s books together and then follow-up your read-aloud by doing an open-ended art project:

“The Pencil” by Allan Ahlberg, illustrated by Bruce Ingman. A pencil starts by drawing a line that becomes a boy, a dog, a bicycle, more characters, and a story. A paintbrush joins in to add color. What happens when the pencil wants to change a few things? He draws an eraser for himself of course!

“the dot” by Peter H. Reynolds. A girl believes she can’t draw, but her art teacher encourages her to start with a dot. From there, she finds her confidence, and passes on the feeling to a friend.

“Ms. McCaw Learns to Draw” by Kaethe Zemach. Ms. McCaw seems to know everything about math and science, history and spelling. But, one thing she can’t do is draw. Dudley Ellington, a student in Ms. McCaw’s class, doesn’t do well with traditional studies at school, but loves to draw. A friendship is formed as the student teaches the teacher.

“When a Line Bends… a Shape Begins” by Rhonda Growler Greene, illustrated by James Kaczman. Lines turn into many brightly colored shapes that become animals, people, and action! Young children will have fun looking for triangles, squares, circles, and more while listening to the rhyming text.